Examples

To conclude this outline of the critical results, the human element in Scripture is given prominence and represented as clothed with the imperfections, limitations, and errors of the times of its origin; many books are exhibited as the products of successive literary accretions, excluding any unity of authorship; in fact, for most of the histories, the unknown writers retire into the shadow to give place to the unifying labours of the equally unknown "redactor" or "redactors".

Now we can start another discussion about the hermeneutics of scripture, redactor errors in ancient texts, the ancient cultural context of scripture, and even the "Did God really say that?" conversation, but my focus is on another important issue.

Afraid that the people might come and try to make him their leader – since that is the kind of thing people who cannot think for themselves are wont to do – he was careful to tell them that he himself was not the author of the visions contained in the book he had brought forth from his cave, he was merely their transmitter and occasional redactor.

Many "redactor critics" of both the Old and New Testaments appeal to oral tradition, yet with the possible exception of a few prayers, no Biblical writings follow the patterns of oral tradition as noted by actual scholars of oral transmission such as Milman Parry.

A commenter on my recent post about the Documentary Hypothesis suggested a possible analogy to the activity of the redactor of the Pentateuch, namely Tatian's Diatessaron, the first attempt to create a single life of Jesus from the four Gospels.